


Thanks for the Hospitality

by alwaysrise



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe- No Supernatural, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-02
Updated: 2015-06-06
Packaged: 2018-04-02 12:03:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4059316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alwaysrise/pseuds/alwaysrise
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I found you passed out in front of my door so I brought you inside and put you on my couch" AU, featuring a flirty (but secretly concerned) Carmilla and a very hungover Laura.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So originally this AU was going to be a one-shot, but my motivation to write was in the negatives and I ran out of time to complete it, so I decided to divide it into two short chapters. This is my first Carmilla fic, and it's literally the first piece I've written in a few years, so hopefully it's not too awful. Also, I suck at titles.

A faint beeping noise rings through Carmilla’s ears as she buries her face impossibly deeper into a pillow to try and block it out.  She waits a few minutes, trying to even out her breathing to return to her previous slumber, but the sound becomes more irritating as the seconds tick by.  Letting out a frustrated groan, she swats her arm out to the side, trying to locate the alarm clock that she assumes she turned on accidentally.  When her hand finds nothing but air, she peels her eyes open and brushes some stray hairs from her face.  Now that she’s somewhat awake, Carmilla quickly becomes aware that the beeping noise is most definitely _not_ coming from her alarm clock, and she has fallen asleep on the couch, not her bed. 

Carmilla sighs, accepting the fact that nap time is over, and scratches the back of her head as she twists around to locate the source of the god awful noise.  “Oh fuck,” she mutters and climbs off the couch, rushing into the kitchen to pull out a batch of pizza rolls she must have fallen asleep while making.  She flips a switch on the wall and her ceiling fan comes to life to clear away some of the smoke.  Inspecting the pizza rolls, Carmilla finds that each one is burnt to a crisp, and the low growl of her stomach informs her that it’s not very happy with the outcome.  Carmilla kicks the oven angrily, though she very well knows the blame rests on her shoulders.  It helps relieve her of some frustration, though.

Dumping the charcoaled dinner into the trash, she begins to look through her fridge and cupboards for anything to eat.  When she comes up empty-handed, she debates returning to bed to sleep off the retched night, but is once again reminded of her hunger as her stomach rumbles loudly.  Carmilla glances at the microwave and groans at the time.  It’s two in the morning and there’s no fucking way she’s going to be able to find a place that delivers this late.  Giving into her need of sustenance, she quickly slips on a pair of black boots after shrugging on her leather jacket.  Going out at two a.m. in all black probably wasn’t the most brilliant idea, but since when did she care about others’ opinions? 

She grabs her keys off the kitchen counter and pries open the front door.  Due to the fact that her brain is still half asleep, she doesn’t quite process that something is very unusual about her non-existent doormat before she finds herself face-planting in the middle of the apartment hallway.    “Are you ser-,” she begins to growl, but immediately swallows her words when she sees that the oversized doormat is actually a human being.  Carmilla glances up and down the hall and comes to the conclusion that her and the mystery girl (she's assumed based on the long hair and small stature) are the only ones around.  Running a hand through her hair, Carmilla grumbles as she pushes herself off the ground and lightly taps the girl with her foot.  After a few attempts to nudge the girl into consciousness, Carmilla sighs and crosses her arms.  She can see the subtle rise and fall of the girl’s chest, so she knows calling for help isn’t necessary.  “Goddamnit Karnstein,” she mutters to herself as she bends down, scoops up the unconscious girl and slips back into her apartment.

After laying the girl down on her couch, Carmilla props her head up with some pillows and trudges around her bedroom until she musters up a clean blanket to drape over her.  Now that the girl looks relatively comfortable, Carmilla bends down to pick up the wallet that has slipped out of the girl’s pocket.  She flips it open and smirks as her eyes rake over the girl’s driver’s license.  The first bit of information that Carmilla notes is that the mystery girl’s name is Laura, Laura Hollis.  The second thing she notices is that _Laura_ is 21 years of age as of today’s date.  She lets her eyes settle on the photo portion of the ID and snorts immediately.  Most people complain about the picture on their license, but Laura looks like she was having the best day of her life.  The smile spread across her face could light up a room, and Carmilla hates to admit how adorable it is.  She quickly observes that Laura has honey-brown hair that matches her eyes before she closes the wallet and places it on the end table beside the couch.  No matter how cute Laura is, she’s clearly new to the drinking club.  The smell of alcohol is practically rolling off of her and Carmilla is sure that anyone experienced with drinking would never blackout on someone else’s doorstep.  She shakes her head and retreats to her bedroom to snag a book and a garbage can (she would rather Laura get sick in a container than all over her carpet) before curling up in the living room armchair, forgetting all about the rumbling in her stomach.

Fifty percent of Carmilla’s evening is spent reading.  The other fifty is spent listening to the quiet inhale and exhale of breath from the girl lying across from her. 

 

               


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took me a bit to find the inspiration to finish writing this chapter, but it's finally done! I did make it longer, as promised. I read through it once, but I probably missed some spelling or tense errors, so sorry for any mistakes!

Carmilla sighs and sets her book down to rub at her heavy eyelids.  She figured it’d be best if she was awake when her visitor regained consciousness, so she hadn’t bothered trying to fall asleep.  Normally she enjoys evading sleep, but staring at a book for several hours can take a toll on a person’s mental health.  Not only was Carmilla’s brain fuzzy and eyelids droopy, her stomach had ceased to shut up all night.  Around five in the morning she had even sunk low enough to snack on some stale crackers she found stashed in the back of her cabinet.  It was now going on eleven in the afternoon and Laura was still passed out, snoring softly on Carmilla’s couch, her arms tightly wrapped around the yellow pillow Carmilla had supplied her with.  Luckily the girl had managed to keep her alcohol intake inside her body throughout the night.  Carmilla really didn’t want to have to explain Laura’s whereabouts while holding her hair back as she emptied her stomach into the trashcan.  Yeah.  She was definitely happy about that.

Standing up to stretch, Carmilla shuffles into her bedroom to grab a change of clothes before making her way to the bathroom to take a quick shower.

= = = = = = = =

            Sunlight filters in through the apartment window, bouncing off Laura’s face and causing her to shift in her sleep.  Peeling her eyelids open, she’s immediately greeted with a painful pounding in her head.  She groans loudly and presses a hand to her forehead as she rolls over to look for her purse to pull out the bottle of aspirin she carries with her.  Her eyes slowly rake across the floor, the pain in her head not helping her think.  _That party must have really done a number on me._ When Laura doesn’t find the purse within her immediate vision, she groans again and presses her eyes closed.  Maybe some more sleep will solve the hangover crisis she seems to be having.  Only a few moments pass; however, before a nearby voice pulls her back out of her almost-slumber.  “Lafontaine?” she mumbles sleepily.  “Is that you?”

“Mmm, sorry cutie.  Afraid not,” Carmilla practically purrs.  She had retreated to her armchair after her shower, and was getting impatient when her guest had finally begun to stir.  Despite knowing that Laura needed the sleep, Carmilla’s stomach had more important priorities that couldn’t be taken care of unless she kept the girl awake.

Laura’s eyes snap open and she immediately sits up, scrunching up her face as her head begins to throb even more.  Her eyes settle on the stranger sitting across from her, and she swallows thickly as her eyes trail down the girl’s body.  She’s wearing a see-through black shirt with only a black bra underneath paired with extremely short ( _and extremely flattering_ , she admitted silently) black shorts.  As Laura’s eyes make their way back to her face, she takes in the loose black curls that frame it perfectly and bring out her pale complexion.  Groggily, Laura opens her mouth and concentrates on forming a sentence. “Umm, hi...who the hell are you?  And what are you doing in my apartment?”

“Your apartment?  I think that hangover of yours is affecting you more than I expected.”  Carmilla smirks and leans her head to the side, motioning for Laura to take a look around.  Laura peels her eyes away and quickly glances around the room, her mouth slacking open as she realizes this apartment does in fact not belong to her.  Unless of course she decided to pay a visit to IKEA last night after the party, which, due to her current state, she wasn’t entirely unsure of.  She laughs at the thought of what she would look like lugging home copious amounts of furniture in the middle of the night, but snaps out of it quickly as she turns back to the black-haired girl.

“Oh…oh god…this is your apartment?” Laura croaks out.

Carmilla nods, her smirk spreading further across her face.  Laura’s mouth falls open completely.  “Oh my god, did we…did I…I’m sorry this wasn’t supposed to happen,” Laura stammers, her voice reaching an unnaturally high pitch.  Carmilla chuckles and gives Laura a genuine smile.

“We didn’t sleep together, cupcake, though I’m slightly offended that you would be so appalled if we had.”  Carmilla places her hand on her heart and a paints a pained expression on her face.  A flush of red spreads over Laura’s cheeks.

“I…that’s not what I...I mean you’re really pretty, gorgeous even, but having a one-night stand isn’t really my thing and this was actually my first time drinking and the last thing I would want is for you to think that I was just using you for sex, which I obviously wasn’t, since, you know, we didn’t _do_ anything but,” she huffs, out of breath as Carmilla cuts her off.

“Cutie, you ramble.  I was just joking.”

Laura sucks in a breath and lets out an awkward laugh.  “Right.  My name is Laura, by the way.  You don’t have to keep using nicknames.”  Carmilla shrugs.

“I know, I saw your license.  And besides, the nicknames suit you,” she says, winking at Laura, who looks extremely flustered.  Carmilla can’t help but think it’s cute. 

Looking down at her hands, Laura twirls her fingers together for a few seconds before glancing back up at the girl.  “So what exactly did happen last night?  Because I don’t really remember, which is probably bad.  That’s bad right?  I feel like I should remember how I got here.”

Carmilla sighs and offers Laura another smile.  (She’s going to have to start charging this girl; these smiles are usually a rare occurrence.)  She looks away then, and let’s her bangs fall over her eyes.  _Stop being such a softie, Karnstein._   _Pull your shit together._ “I went out to get some food last night and found you lying outside my door.  It was pretty easy to tell you were drunk, so I figured I’d just bring you inside.  I mean, better than leaving you out there.  I guess.  It’s not a big deal.”  She shrugs and brushes the bangs out of her face, sparing a glance at Laura to gauge her reaction.  Her eyes seem to widen at first, but they soften as she takes in Carmilla’s words.

“Wow...that’s...thank you…?” Laura says, looking at the girl questioningly.

“It’s Carmilla.” 

 Laura smiles slightly at the sound of the girl’s name.  “I can’t believe I passed out in front of your door.”

“Yeah well, better my door than one of the other assholes that live around here,” Carmilla mutters. 

Laura laughs softly, and Carmilla turns her head to hide the blush crawling up her neck.  _That laugh should be illegal._ Laura clears her throat and speaks again, slightly louder this time.  “At least I made it to the right apartment building.  Your apartment looks similar to mine, so I’m assuming I did.  I’m room number 307.”

“Looks like you would have had to make it up one more flight of stairs, cutie.  Probably a good thing you didn’t get the chance to attempt that.  I can fix hangovers but I can’t fix broken bones.”  Carmilla pauses, but when Laura doesn’t say anything, she continues.  “I hate to cut this conversation short, but your visitation last night cost me a dinner, and my stomach is getting impatient.  And I’m sure that hangover of yours would appreciate some substance other than alcohol.  So I should really get going.” 

Laura bites her lip and nods.  “Yeah, I should probably get back to my place.  Maybe food is a good start to making this killer headache go away.  I feel like I have a whole other brain crammed into my skull.”

“That’ll pass,” Carmilla murmurs, standing up to put on her shoes.  She feels bad for ditching the girl, but it was going on one o’clock and her stomach literally feels like it’s killing her from the inside out.  So food was something that needed to happen soon.  When she finishes slipping on her boots, she turns back to Laura and points towards the end table.  “Your wallet is on the floor there.”

She watches as Laura untangles herself from the blanket and bends down to scoop up her wallet.  As she pushes herself off the couch, Carmilla sees her legs waiver a bit, but she regains her balance and smiles shyly at Carmilla as she meets her by the door. 

“Hey, so…,” Laura starts, pausing awkwardly, not knowing how to continue.  “Do you maybe want to come get food at my place?  I mean you don’t have to, but I feel bad for crashing at your place, and I’m sure you’re starving, and my apartment is closer than any store or restaurant, so it’d be more convenient.  And I just went to the store a few days ago, so I’m sure I have something that you could find to eat.  I’m just not sure how else to say thanks, I guess.”  She risks a glance up at Carmilla as she continues to fiddle with her fingers anxiously. 

“Most people offer to take me on a date before inviting me inside their home, cutie,” Carmilla says slyly, raising one of her perfect eyebrows and smirking down at the now, even more flustered girl.

Laura scoffs and swats Carmilla’s arm.  “I’m not falling for your jokes this time.  It’s just breakfast.  Or well, lunch.  I guess.  You don’t have to say yes, I’m sure the store has a much wider variety of food than my apartment does.  You’re probably tired of dealing me with anyways, I’m not even sure why I asked, I’m sorry.  I should just leave.”  She goes to reach for the doorknob but is stopped by Carmilla’s hand wrapping gently around her arm.  Laura reaches up and tuckes some of her own hair behind her ear before looking up at Carmilla, who is smiling a toothy grin.

“Has anyone ever told you that you talk too much?”  Carmilla pulls her hand away from Laura’s arm and tucks it in her back pocket.  Blush once again spreads across Laura’s face and Carmilla can't help but laugh.  “Free food with a cute girl?  Lead the way.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone that read this :) I know it wasn't much, but I hope you enjoyed it! You can find me at princesshollis.tumblr.com


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